Pacify
by malfoysmission
Summary: Hermione Granger disappeared from England shortly after the war, what happens to the Golden Trio when they are reunited and married seventeen years later?
1. Prologue

**Prologue:**

 **August 12th, 1998,**

 **12:10 pm —**

 **Diagon Alley**

It was incautious of Hermione, honestly, to run away from her problems in England and move to Sweden like the cowardly lion in the muggle film _The Wizard of Oz._ She was supposed to be a Gryffindor for Circe sakes! Brave of heart, tenacious, resilient being the key term, all of which Hermione felt she was not at the present time. 

After running from friends she had not seen in seventeen years, all because of the aftermath of the war and all the deaths, and God, Fred's death might have been the catalyst in those events, of course the Weasley's were affected the most, Harry and Hermione respectively as well, but the person who Hermione was friends with at the time 'apparently' had something to do with his death. 

Hermione dated Ron Weasley for a quaint few months after the war, until one day, some months after all of the funerals, Ron stopped meeting with Hermione and Harry for their usual drink at the Leaky Cauldron, all of Hermione's owls were sent back, and he even went as far as to block his floo network and put up anti-apparition wards on his apartment. 

But what shocked Hermione the most, was the fact that he altered the wards around The Burrow so Hermione couldn't even visit what she considered her extended family. 

Hermione saw Ron one day in Diagon Alley and when confronted he wouldn't even speak to her for longer than a minute, he didn't even look at her once during their talk. 

"Ron! Would you please tell me what I did!" Generally, Hermione wasn't the type of person who would cause a scene in the middle of a busy street on a Saturday, of all the days of the week, but today was different. 

"You didn't do anything Hermione." 

"Then why haven't you spoken to me, it's been weeks! Even Harry won't talk to me anymore! I clearly did something to you to make _all_ of your family turn against me." Ron wouldn't even look in her eyes, how could something that was so right fall to shreds in the blink of an eye? 

"I've been waiting for you to get my break-up-owl." He muttered weakly. Break-up-owl's were the latest _Witch Weekly_ trend, as designed by Lavender Brown, designer of some of the world's worst tchotchke's. 

"You've been ignoring me because you were waiting for me to get some ridiculous owl? Are you kidding me Ronald? You could've just broken up with me in person and I wouldn't have to have made a complete fool out of myself in public!" 

"I'm not breaking up with you because of you, 'Mione! I'm breaking up with you because of who you're friends with!" Ron had always had an issue with her friendship with Draco Malfoy, pureblood bigot extraordinaire, since Hermione told him and Harry she and that _Death Eater_ became friends in the latter half of their fifth year. 

"So my friendship with Draco _is_ that much of an issue for you? I knew you had problems with him, but of course you always told me it was okay, everything was fine. No, I cannot believe you didn't speak to me about this first before you decided to send me a breakup-owl!" Hermione shook her head in disbelief. 

"Well, 'Mione, I didn't want to have to do this, but I have to say it. If you stop being friends — if that's what you call it — with Malfoy, I won't break up with you. That's my final answer." 

"You're asking me to give up a friendship with someone? Someone I've been friends with for over two years?" 

"Yes. I'm asking you to save a friendship of seven years with your boyfriend and best friend! Harry and Ginny agree, you shouldn't throw away all we have just for someone who tormented you for the majority of the time you've known him!" She had never known any of her friends to be so selfish, maybe the war hadn't changed as much as they all proclaimed it had. 

"You're really giving me an ultimatum Ronald? Well I don't want to be with someone who is going to give me ultimatum's when it comes to _my_ life decisions, not yours. Who I choose to be friends with is not your concern. If you can't see past that prejudiced little boy he once was, than you're no better than those people in the war we were fighting against! 

"The war clearly hasn't opened your eyes yet Ronald. It's time for you to grow up. Draco's changed, I can see that he has. He's a good man, Ron, and if you can't accept the fact that I chose to become friends with him, then maybe we aren't right for each other. " 

"Then I have nothing else to say, don't expect to be hearing from anyone you know anytime soon. Goodbye, Hermione Granger." Hermione was shell-shocked as she stared at the place Ron had disapparated from.

* * *

"Alright let's do it, let's move to Sweden." Draco didn't have the chance to open the door to his apartment fully before Hermione barged in and began summoning all sorts of packing materials.

"Woah, Hermione. _Hermione!_ Slow down, talk, what happened between now and last week?" Hermione's frantic taping and boxing of various items stopped as she glared at Draco with a look he had seen only a few times in their two and a half years of friendship. 

"Ron… He, he broke up with me because…" 

"Because what?" Draco's shocking eyes never once strayed from her own, something Ron-the-brawn wasn't particularly known for. 

"Because I'm friends with you, and I told him I wouldn't stop being friends with you, no matter what! He even gave me an ultimatum, can you believe that?" 

"I'm guessing you took the latter option then?" Draco had started summoning his belongings into luggage amidst Hermione's ranting. 

"Absolutely not. I told him that if he couldn't accept who I was friends with then he and I shouldn't be together in the first place." 

"I don't want you to give up all you've worked for just for me, Granger, I was a right git to you for years. Heck, I don't think I even deserve your friendship now, especially after my stupid decisions during the war. You've been through so much pain already, you don't deserve this." Draco grasped her hand tenderly, as one would do if they were comforting a loved one. 

* "Life is pain, Draco. Anyone who says differently is selling something."

"Why must you quote those stupid muggle romantic-comedy movies when we're having a moment?"

"Hey! They actually have some substance if they've got a good story line, and that one particularly does."

"So when are we leaving?" The duo had finished packaging all of Draco's kitchen utensils into conjured bubble wrap and shrunk them so they fit into the suitcase with the undetectable extension charm. 

"There's an international portkey to Stockholm tonight. I think as soon as possible would be best." 

"I always knew you were one for adventure Granger." Draco's impish grin that Hermione loved appeared on his face as the two sat in the middle of his bare apartment on the kitchen floor, hoping that one day in the future their lives would have some meaning. 

Their lives may not have been good at that minute, but the next years were the happiest of their lives, and the way Draco and Hermione saw it, they wouldn't have changed anything for a second. 

* * *

**Note:**

Tchotchke: Yiddish for a trinket-type object

* Taken from The Princess Bride

 **Word Count:** 1,259


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1:**

 **May 21st, 2016,**

 **09:00 am —**

 **Duntisbourne House**

Malfoy family breakfasts were always a riotous affair. Cereal and syrup spilled on the table, twins ending up in headlocks, a baby throwing up food from eating too quickly, but it was a family event. It was the time of the day before children went off to school, adults went to work and their breakfast wasn't spoken of until the next morning when the cycle repeated. May 21st was no different.

"The post's here." Hermione Malfoy grasped the Daily Prophet from the Malfoy family Eagle Owl, Ruby.

"Mummy look!" Two year old Ara pointed at the second owl that flew through the window in wake of Ruby. Ara's small hands were currently spreading cereal and milk across her placemat where she proceeded to create 'artwork'.

"Ara Daphne Malfoy, you are two years old, not one!"

"Oh, leave her alone Draco, she's just at that age, 'terrible twos', as muggles say." She placed a kiss to her grinning daughters chubby cheeks and vanished the mess with her wand.

"She's a Malfoy, Malfoy's don't have 'terrible twos'."

"Oh, really? Because I know one Malfoy in particular that sometimes acts like he's two when he's almost thirty-six!" Draco's pout that was identical on all three of his children's faces was directed at his wife of thirteen years. She was immune to her children's pouts, but her husbands she couldn't resist even in their greatest arguments.

"Scorpius! Leo! I think your letters are here!" Two thundering sets of footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs. The twins appeared in the door of the kitchen.

The boys, in a sense, were physically identical, both had the Malfoy hair and height, the same aristocratic features, yet Scorpius' eyes were the slate-grey of his fathers and Leo's were his mother's whiskey coloured irises.

However, their personalities were the complete opposite. Scorpius hated quidditch, Leo couldn't wait to play for his house team. Leo hated everything academic — yet was still intelligent — and Scorpius was rarely seen without his nose stuffed in a book. Scorpius was the quiet, anti-social, non-troublesome child, and Leo was the stereotypical 'class clown', boisterous and proud.

"There's only one, Leo only got a letter." Leo had already snatched the letter from the owl without even giving it a galleon for payment, just shooing the bird away when it pecked at his hand.

* * *

 _Mr. Leo Malfoy_

 _Duntisbourne House_

 _Duntisbourne Abbotts, Cirencester GL7 7LE_

 _England_

 _HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF_

 _WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

 _Headmistress: Minerva McGonagall_

 _(Order of Merlin, First Class)_

 _Dear Mr. Malfoy._

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

 _Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 ** _Minerva McGonagall_**

 ** _Headmistress_**

* * *

"Mum, I don't think I got a letter, the owl only brought one." Scorpius dejectedly slumped into a chair beside Hermione and stared at the pancakes that appeared on his plate.

"Ha ha, Scorpius is a _squib_! He didn't get a letter!" Leo was prancing around the table cackling gleefully. Scorpius leapt out of his chair and rounded on his mother.

"Mum! I'm not a squib am _I?_ " Scorpius looked like he was about to burst into tears standing at the side of Hermione's chair.

"Of course not, baby. Remember you first showed signs of magic _before_ your brother." She tucked a loose strand of white-blonde hair behind Scorpius' ear.

"That doesn't matter, I still got my letter first!" Leo said in a sing-song voice.

"Leo, sit down at the table and eat your breakfast and leave your brother alone. There's probably another owl on its way Scorp, there's nothing for you to worry about." Draco glared at Leo which made him immediately sit down in the chair opposite his father.

"Maybe they sent an old birdy Scorpy." Ara's pale fingers reached across the table and grasped Scorpius' equally see-through hands.

" _I_ still say Scorpius is a squib." Leo puffed his chest in a bravado way like he often did when trying to prove a point to anyone who was willing to listen.

"Yeah, well I did magic before you even could take your fingers out of your nose long enough to eat you git!" Ara was thoroughly enjoying her brothers squabbling and was trying to add her own inputs to the conversation with toddler-talk.

"At least I'm not going to go cross-eyed from having my nose shoved in a smelly old book all the time you swot!"

"I think you've fallen off your broom and smashed your head one too many times Leo!"

"Hey! Stop this fighting at once, there's an owl here now." Brotherly fights were a common occurrence in the Malfoy house, and often reminded Hermione of Fred and George making fun of Percy during his Prefect days.

She hadn't alerted anyone that she used to know that her and her family had been back in England for a year, only the friends she had come to call her family due to her relationship with Draco. It surprised Hermione how quickly the Slytherin's took to the swotty Gryffindor, especially Pansy Parkinson who had tormented Hermione for her blood status and 'chipmunk' features constantly. Sure, Hermione and Parkinson weren't the friendliest, but they could sit in the same room and happily ignore each other for hours.

Hermione's best friend was Daphne Greengrass, prized fashionista and legendary babysitter. Hermione was finally happy to have a female friend, not that Ginny wasn't a good friend, they were more like acquaintances, only friendly because she was the sister of one of her best friends. Hermione could always rely on Daphne for emotional support and the pair grew even closer when she was there for the birth of Ara because Draco couldn't get there until after she was born.

"Yes! I am a wizard, mum, dad look!" Scorpius thrust the parchment under both Hermione and Draco's nose.

"Oh well, _I'm_ going to get on the quidditch team for Slytherin _first_ year. Just like Harry Potter."

"Leo." The subject of Hermione's previous friends was always tense in the Malfoy house, and it didn't help that Leo had a ridiculous poster of Harry _and_ Ron, both of them smiling and waving at the stupid camera like the sun shines out of their arses.

"What? I'm just saying that I'm going to be a great quidditch player."

"Well of course you are, you've got me as a father." Leo seemed to have inherited Draco's egotistical attitude he had when he was 11, Hermione just hoped that her son didn't take it upon himself to tease Gryffindors, because Merlin knows that boy is going to be a Slytherin.

"Yes, well if you're like your father, you'll be asking him to buy the quidditch team new brooms just so you can get on the team."

"I did not do that! Do you seriously still not believe I didn't ask my father to buy me into the team?" Hermione's little grin she sent Draco told him she was joking. Her favourite thing to do since they had become friends and eventually lovers was to tease him about the ridiculous things he used to do during their years as Hogwart's.

"You're an idiot." Hermione kissed the side of Draco's mouth, in turn making Ara reach over to Leo and place a squelching kiss to his cheek, leaving a line of saliva connecting them.

"Ara, yuck!" Leo wiped his cheek roughly, causing it to gleam beetroot red.

"So I guess we're going to Diagon Alley today?" Hermione and Draco had tried to avoid wizarding England as much as possible in the short time since they had returned because they wanted to keep their family life private from the prying eyes of the public. They also wanted to keep their relationship away from the people that had a problem when they were simply friends, Hermione and Draco couldn't imagine what the Potter's and Weasley's would do if they found out they had actually married and reproduced.

"Guess so."

* * *

 **Note:**

'Duntisbourne House' is an actual house for sale in England, so credit to the owners for the beautiful house! I decided that rather than having them live at Malfoy Manor I wanted them to create their own life for their family once they moved back to England from Sweden.

I also have a tumblr, so if you'd like to follow me feel free!: malfoysdontcry


End file.
